Market breadth turns negative as ZSE falls further

Published: 18 March 2020

The stock market fell further on Tuesday as the market breadth turned negative. Foreign participation remained insignificant and local liquidity remained restricted with turnover closing at $17.9m which is 22.49% lower than yesterday's turnover.

Most of the turnover was led by Delta which had $4.1m, Old Mutual $2.8m in 12 trades. Hippo had $2.3m in 2 trades, Innscor $1.9m and Econet had $1.3m. Foreigners bought equities worth $87,043 - most likely old money - and sold no equities after Treasury took out the most efficient exit point by suspending fungibility.

Old Mutual which almost hit its limit down yesterday traded in the negative today as it fell10.84% to close at 3800.05c. This is seen as a temporary flight of investors as the heavyweight is one of the few lucrative stocks on the local bourse. On the JSE, the Old Mutual share price lost 2.9% as the OMIR slipped to 57.6. PPC also eased 10.04% to 500.00c.

A total of 28 counters traded at close, with 21 of those trading in the negative and 7 trading in the positive while the rest did not trade. The All Share Index fell 24.09 points to 480.81 bringing the loss from the two days to 41.39 points (7.62%). Turnall was the worst performer, losing 20% to 12c and reducing its gains in the year to date to 9.09%. Sugarcane farmer and refiner Hippo was down 15.98% to 650.13.

Delta traded 5.85% lower at 647.98c and Meikles shed 6.80% during trading hours to close at 800c. Innscor was down 3.61% to 810.53c ahead of the release of its interim results. Cassava dropped 9,40% to 278.31 amid reports Treasury will soon announce new measures to monitor the flow of funds through the group's Ecocash system. The Top Ten Index fell 6.56% to 398.11 and the Top 15 was down 6.02% to 410.79.

The Small Cap and Medium Cap indices also took hits on the second day of losses across the board, with the former closing 2.94% weaker at 1,426.03 and the latter losing 1.39% to close at 678.26.

SeedCo International continues to firm up despite the suspension of its fungibility status as it was up 0.26% to 501.90c. Bindura gained 11.11% to end at 50.00c, as Mash holdings also added 6.41% to close at 20.75c.

Largest bank by deposits CBZ, which is undergoing transformation, was also up 0.63% to 150.94c. This comes as the market awaits the launch of the Reuters platform, which is expected to go live this week under a managed float. Indicative rates submitted by the banks ranged from 20-28 although there were a couple of banks who submitted rates in line with the parallel market rates.

First Mutual, which is trading under caution, was up 17.21% to 107.25c. - finx